I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of magazine printing systems, and more particularly to an automated system for defining the presets for the folder used, so that set-up and conversion of the folder from job to job to accommodate differing signature sizes, paper sizes and page make-ups can be facilitated.
II. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the printing industry, offset presses are used to print inked images onto a web of paper moving through the press at high speeds. The web may then be slit into plural ribbons and the ribbons are then routed through a folder where the signatures are formed in an appropriate order so that when cut and assembled on a bindery line, the pages of the magazine will be in proper order. Typical of the type of equipment on which the present invention finds use is the Harris Model M1000B which may incorporate a double former folder and/or a combination folder. It should be understood, however, that the present invention is not limited only to this particular equipment, but may find application on any web press incorporating turn bars and compensation rollers in its folder station.
Typical folders may have a plurality of levels where each level is equipped with a turn bar and an associated compensation roller. The turn bars and compensation rollers are movable by servomotor driven lead screws. The turn bars are moved to adjust the lateral positioning of the ribbons passing there over while the compensation rollers are used to adjust the advance or retard of the ribbons longitudinally, so that when passing through a cutter, the cut will provide appropriate margins at the beginning and end of each page and will not be cut in mid-page.
In the past, in setting up a job, the press operator would first determine for each folder level which holes the turn bars on that level should be inserted into. If the particular job had been run before, the operator would typically have recorded the hole positions and the paper path route in a notebook or the like for future reference. Once the turn bars are properly assembled into the appropriate positioning holes, it is still necessary for the operator to "fine tune" the positions of those turn bars as well as those of the compensation rollers. This is done by jogging manual push-buttons to apply current to the lead screw drive motors to drive the screws in the forward or reverse direction, while noting the way in which the signatures are folded and cut. When folding and cutting is as desired, normal operation can resume. Since this must be done for each of the plural folder levels in use at the time, the setup operation can be relatively time consuming, even for an experienced operator. For a novice operator, the task tends to be quite formidable. If the setup takes a relatively long time to accomplish, there is an attendant waste of paper taking place until the proper positioning of the turn bars and compensating rollers has been attained.
As an example, it has been found that for successive different runs, a trained operator may take typically 15-20 minutes in reconfiguring the folder between successive job changes. Considering that the rate of paper flow through the press is approximately 700 feet per minute, 14,000 feet of paper may typically flow through the system before the folder is properly adjusted to produce usable copy.
In that a printing company commonly prints a variety of publications in accordance with a predetermined time schedule, there is real value in being able to preset the folder section of the press to a specific configuration associated with a previously run job after it has been operated for other publications so that valuable time and materials will be saved.
The preset system of the present invention is universally modifiable to any two nose double former folder and any ribbon decks of four or six levels. The configuration can be set in a password protected screen.